How do you decide what to get rid of and what to keep? My daughter plays with everything she has, pretty much ... polly pockets, barbies, ellos, ALL her stuffed animals get floor time, ALL Her dolls get floor time.

The toys that don't get much use are the ones I feel like they ought to have -- anything wooden or waldorf-y, the train set (which I think would get use if there wasn't destructo baby acting as Godzilla, LOL) and the puzzles/homeschooly/games/learning stuff. And the puppets.

But there's just SOOOO MUCH of everything! The kids share a small room, and all baby's stuff is in the living room.

my dd was the first grandchild on both sides...so our house looks like Toys R Us threw up. We have dubbed our problem 'First Grandchild Syndrome'

we still have 3 or 4 things from Christmas that we haven't even opened yet.

We try sorting through the toybox once every few weeks and taking some things out to put in hiding. It doesn't help that she has a phenomenal memory. She is still asking about toys that we never unpacked when we moved 1.5 years ago.

Really...some of this stuff has got to go.
We're planning to have a yard sale when it gets warmer (I'll drop the kids off at my parents for the day so we can sell the old toys we've taken out of rotation without upsetting dd)

my dd was the first grandchild on both sides...so our house looks like Toys R Us threw up. We have dubbed our problem 'First Grandchild Syndrome'

HAHAHAHA!!!

Thats really funny..... We have the same problem, only my Grandma works in a toy store!!!!!!!

My only tip right now, as we are still learning and deveolping in our 900 sq. ft. house - rotate stuff. I just took 3 plastic tubs - the big ones - to the garage. 2 were full of Geo Trax and 1 was just misc. crud. No one has even asked about em' yet.

My biggest problem is the guilt. I feel terrible selling/getting rid anything she enjoys playing with or got as a gift. One thing I have decided to do is to not allow myself to save every toy for the next child - the next child will probably get plenty of new toys as well, so I am only going to keep the toys *I* approve of, so to speak - the crappy plastic wizbang, etc will get sold when DD outgrows them or maybe after she's gotten to play with it for a significantly reasonable amount of time.

I have noticed something about those natural / waldorfy style toys. My DD enjoys playing with them just as much as the other toys, (and I think interacts with them in a more educational way) but when left side by side with all the plastic battery operated crap, they don't get played with. To deal with the clutter I put MOST of the toys away and we have a few out and I find she is actually happier that way she can concentrate on the toys she has rather than wading in a deep pile of stuff.

same here with the toys. My culprit is dh, who was toy-deprived as a child, so he feels he must buy our kids lots of toys. DD is 4 (Janet, noticed yours will be soon!). She plays with everything, including my junk mail and every paper she colors and pastes. I also feel guilty tossing, unless the toy is really junky. Sorry can't be of much help here.